The robotic X-37B lifted off atop a Falcon Heavy from Florida kicking off the space plane’s seventh mission.
The U.S. military’s X-37B space plane has embarked on its latest clandestine mission at last.
The robotic X-37B lifted off atop a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida Thursday night (Dec. 28) at 8:07 p.m. EST (0107 GMT on Dec. 29) after weeks of delays. SpaceX first two attempts to launch the secretive X-37-B military space plane earlier this month were delayed by bad weather and a ground equipment issue.
Thursday’s launch marked the seventh liftoff for the X-37B to date but its first ride on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy, the second-most powerful rocket currently in operation (after NASA’s Space Launch System). It was SpaceX’s 95th launch of 2023, with the next launch just hours away when Falcon 9 rocket will launch 23 Starlink satellites from the nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station at 11:01 p.m. EST (0401 GMT).
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